The present invention relates to conveying information regarding a web architecture framework and more particularly to identifying alliances of various business entities in a system.
It is common in presentations and the like to present and convey information through graphic representations. These representations may take a variety of forms, such as alphanumeric characters, various sorts of graphs, as well as images of physical objects rendered on various mediums such as a computer display, paper product, transparency, etc. For example, various graphics such as line graphs, bar charts and pie charts have been quite popular in the presentation of business data such as sales, budgets and the like.
Typically, a person can absorb and manipulate information placed in a visual or graphical context much faster than if the same information is represented merely by alphanumeric text or conveyed verbally. The person is also much more likely to retain that information. However, a balance must be maintained between presenting information in a manner so as to be more likely to be retained by the viewer and keeping the graphic presentation simple enough to be easily and quickly comprehended.
Traditional graphs and charts, such as bar and pie charts, work well only for small amounts of information and are typically only useful for presenting statistical information. Attempting to produce such graphs and charts for large amounts of information leads to presenting the information in such small increments, such as bars (in a bar chart) or wedges (in a pie chart), as to lead to confusion, not to mention the greatly reduced chance that a viewer would retain the information presented.
Further, when similar types of information are being grouped together as a divisible unit, such as in the same bar or wedge of a chart, the confusion is compounded. Still further adding to the confusion would be the addition of indicia coding to selected information in the divisible unit, such as attempting to indicia code certain portions of a bar (in a bar chart) already having four components while ensuring that the individual components remain identifiable.
Nor do such charts and graphs do well in providing the overall picture of how the information is organized as a whole, such as how the divisible units (each formed of a variety of different types of information) are related to each other. Simply stating that two or more charts or portions of charts are related may not be enough to enable a viewer to comprehend the interrelationship of the information presented.
There is thus the need for a way to create and display information in a graphic representation that presents the information concisely and in a well organized manner in order to reduce the likelihood of confusion and maximize retention in a viewer and further to increase the viewer""s understanding of the organization and interrelation of the various pieces of information with each other. There is further a particular need for such a system in the art of conveying information regarding network frameworks such as a web architecture framework.
A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for identifying alliances among a plurality of business entities in components of a network framework. First, alliances are identified among a plurality of business entities in terms of components of a current network framework. Next, a pictorial representation is displayed of the current network framework and the components. The alliances are then conveyed by indicia coding the components of the current network framework in which the alliances exist.
In one aspect of the present invention, the alliances that are conveyed relate to features of the components of the current network framework. As an option, the features may be listed in terms of the components to which the features relate. Further, the features may be indicia coded to convey the alliances.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, the present invention may be used to convey information regarding components of the current network framework such as security services, network services, web services, client services, integration capabilities, data services, directory services, management services, operation services, or developer services. In the alternative, the components of the current network framework may include commerce-related services, content-related services, administration-related services, customer-related services, or education-related services.
In still yet another aspect of the present invention, the indicia coding may be selected from the group of indicia coding including texture coding, color coding, and shading coding. As an option, a legend may be presented which defines the indicia coding with respect to the business entities.